A review of Acer Laptops and Netbooks for children and students

As many of you may already know, Acer was one of the official sponsors for our amazing 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. They also provided all of the low energy PCs used by LOCOG (the London Organising Committee for the Olympics and Paralympic Games) - 13000 apparently! So when Acer invited myself and several other bloggers and journalists to review their line-up of laptops and tablets over lunch (at the beautiful Spencer House) I said yes. I'm interested in green technology and as a family we get through a lot of laptops. I was particularly interested in their cheaper laptops and netbooks, which I feel are ideal gifts for children and students.

The last laptop we bought ourselves (for my younger son who is now eight) was an Acer as we thought it represented good value for money and it has coped well so far with the usual challenges you would associate with an eight year old owner, such as being sat upon or dropped on the floor, as well as long sessions playing Minecraft...

Their new low-cost range of laptops included the rather attractive 15.6 EasyNote TV Laptop. It costs £399 which is probably more than most people would spend on a laptop for a younger child. However, for a child like my ten-year old, who wants to programme when he grows up and has completed a week of hacking with Young Rewired State, I would definitely consider this for a Christmas present. The graphics seemed clear and crisp and it also felt quite light so would not present too much of a challenge for a child to carry around. My eight year old's laptop doesn't bother him in terms of size.

Another feature is that the laptop has built-in social networking 'one touch' keys, only to be used when your child is the right age of course! It includes a full version of Adobe Photoshop Elements as well which is great for editing photos and has a battery life of 5 hours. The screen is HD which will be a plus for kids who are gaming or watching movies. It comes in three colours, Ebony Black, Moonstone White and Garnet Red.

Full Specs (from Acer Brochure):
Multimedia capability
15.6-inch HD screen for stunning visuals
Seamless social networking experience – one touch button
Full version of Adobe® Photoshop® Elements pre-loaded


I also looked at the Packard Bell Dot S Netbooks which go from £229 upwards. Like the EasyNote, these have built-in social networking 'hot keys'. It has a wall mount adaptor instead of the usual AC Adaptor which again means less to carry around and is only 10.1 inches in size so is easy to fit in a bag. Portability is a selling point and Acer suggest it would be great on holiday for example, to upload photos (via Bluetooth or Wifi), edit and then publish them to Facebook or Twitter. You could also record video or make video calls, as it features a webcam. The netbook features a new HDMI® port to connect it to the big screen as well as a third generation Intel® Atom™ processor that decodes motion videos much faster while offering increased power-saving features. It comes in White, Black and Purple.

Full Specs (from Acer brochure)
Packard Bell Dot S netbooks (from £229, depending on spec)
Small and conovenient with an attractive colour palette
Easy-to-use keyboard with one-click hot keys
Social Networking at a touch
HDMI® port and new Intel® Atom™ processor


Full Disclosure: I was invited to review these laptops at an event for tech bloggers sponsored by Acer.

Glossi: your social media life online

I recently got sent an invite to Glossi, an online service that allows you to present all your social media content (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, vimeo, Pinterest, foursquare, tumblr, flickr, Google+ and RSS feed are currently all options) in an attractive, magazine-style format online.

Yawn, I hear you say, not another social network to curate. The great thing about Glossi is it really is a set it and forget it option, similar in function to the excellent Twitter aggregator Paper.li. It has a lovely visual interface and works very well with the links you've shared, retrieving the accompanying images and bringing them all together. It seems quite good at avoiding duplication as well. I'd thoroughly recommend this as a way to curate your content. Check out my Glossi here

Last video for WeTalkBusiness on social media and search engine optimisation

This is the last of my interviews with WeTalkBusiness about social media and search engine optimisation - most importantly, how I use Twitter and Facebook to promote my business. I'm now providing this service, with a web developer, for other small businesses and organisations - check out Pollocks Toy Museum Trust where we provided a custom Wordpress template with full social media integration.

Market Research for Businesses

This is the second of a series of interviews I did for Wetalkbusiness - this one is about how I carried out market research when I set up my business. Incidentally I used the excellent Surveymonkey to create the interactive survey I talk about on this video and recommend it to everyone.

Interview about starting up my company Mimimyne on We Talk Business

This is the first of three video interviews I did for Wetalkbusiness. In this one, I'm talking about what inspired me to set up my company Mimimyne.

The Bloggers Guide to Google+ by Matt Cooke and Lisa de Bonis at Britmums Live

I decided to go to Britmums Live, the event for parent bloggers in the UK, this year and I'm so glad I did! It's a yearly event for members of Britmums, one of the oldest parent blogger networks in the UK (and one which welcomes daddy bloggers too, despite the name). The bloggers who turn up are usually parents who blog about all kinds of things - family life, products for children, parenting challenges, cooking, crafts or small business (like me!).

The Bloggers guide to Google+ by Matt Cooke of Google+ and Lisa de Bonis
The first session I attended was a Google+ seminar: Google+ are currently reaching out to early adopters like bloggers and are keen to organise communities based around 'shared passions' - they suggested organising your circles to reflect your enthusiasms such as crafting, food etc so that you can follow people who share the same passion as you (and gain inspiration for blogs) and also so that you can share blog entries or other links with appropriate audiences.

Lisa mentioned that a blogger who is keen to remain anonymous should create a Page for their blog; no one will know that their Profile runs the Page.

Another cool feature they talked about is Hangouts: if you run a Hangout on Air you can stream if from your blog and it will be auto recorded and saved on Youtube. Some ways you can use this are for Product Reviews, How to's, Q&A sessions, Book Clubs, Debates and of course Vlogging.

Essentials:

• Link your G+ Page and your Blog/website
  
• Verify your Google Plus Page


• Share your blog posts on Google+


• Use Hashtags and Keywords in your posts

Learn More about Google+

Google Reader Integration One questioner asked whether Google+ had any plans to make it easier for users of Google Reader to share links. I was keen to hear the answer to this as I subscribe to a lot of RSS streams from blogs in my Google Reader and I don't think I'm alone! I've often been baffled by the lack of 'joining up' in some Google services and think Reader would have been perfect for more sharing, not less, as it's such a useful service. Google+ responded that they are keen to encourage manual sharing from Google+ itself at this point, to get people to use the service more and know it better, but might add more integration with other services further down the line. I'm not 100% convinced by this - how come Blogger has auto-share added, then? - but at least we know the official line!

Several members of the audience had questions about merging Google+ accounts into one (is it possible? Short answer, no) and whether Profiles or Pages are better (short answer, use a Profile for your personal account and a Page for your professional account).

This was a very useful session for those of us who are still learning about Google+ - it's such a new network that there is a steep learning curve even if you are a Google obsessive, like me.

Using the Advanced Features of Facebook Pages Seminar by Janis Curry at Britmums Live

Advanced Blogging: Using the Advanced Features of Facebook Pages seminar by Janis Curry of Really Kid Friendly

This was another great seminar at Britmums Live and very informative for those of us who run Facebook Pages. Janis had some great points about considering your audience: make sure you add good, shareable content and don't make your posts too 'blogger-centric'. Also, time updates to suit them.

Good ways to create engagement are to ask people to Like or Comment or ask questions on Facebook.

She cautioned against using too much automated posting, eg from Twitter, and suggests using Crowdbooster or Sproutsocial instead so you can tailor updates to each network.

Think about your blog - what's it all about? Describe it in one minute and identify the main themes. Focus your Page (and blog) on 3-4 themes.

Think about your relationship to your readers - best friend? Sister? Resource?

Facebook updates should tell your story and show you have a history.

Vary your posts by pinning photos etc or by varying types of post to keep your page looking lively. And customise your app buttons (the little squares that show up under your main photo) with some cute images for a real impact!

Info about running competitions on Facebook
No asking visitors to Like/Comment/add photos to enter a competition.
They can't enter automatically if they Like your page.
They can't use Likes/Shares as a voting mechanism.
You can't notify winners through Facebook.

You can use a Canvas page or Page app to manage a competition or ask visitors to Like your Page as part of the competition criteria. She recommends Contests for Facebook or Lujure for this.

This was a very useful seminar for advanced Facebook Page users - I picked up some great tips from Janis!

Visit her website Very Kid Friendly.